A Broom of One's Own

Paint.

Oh what lovely stuff.

Apparently it is a liquefiable, or mastic composition which after application to a substrate in a thin layer is converted to an opaque solid film.

It is also a means to ruin. I’ve spent days trying to get the stuff off the walls.

I mean, just look at it! On the wall that once held a shelf, I had to replace three planks because the termites had had a good munch, but otherwise the planks were still sound. However the 1950s and 1970s repaint cracked off a strip up the centre of each plank.

So, in their infinite wisdom, the builders just repainted over the top of the lot, leaving cracked paint with chips that got into the new paint, that wasn’t even a pretty colour. I mean, muddy beige? The whole lot was then painted over again about 10 years ago with a very hard, solid, emulsion.

And the only way to get it off is the sand the lot down. Sometimes I feel like I'm swimming uphill against the grain, but the wood is slowly appearing. I’ve taken so much paint off, that I’ve been sweeping it up in piles – and that’s just the paint that’s gone into my hair and down my ears.
The broom has been getting a workout.

But, ever so slowly, I’m getting to the stage when it will all be done! Just a bit more paint and I’ll have buttered my nest.